Slow start doesn’t mean different ending for women's basketball

WASHINGTON – Four days removed from a nine-point victory over Michigan, it looked as though the Terrapins women's basketball team was still feeling the effects of its most difficult test of the season at Bender Arena yesterday.

The Terps were held scoreless for nearly the first four minutes in their road game at American, missing their first two shots before an Alyssa Thomas jumper finally got them on the board just before the half's first media timeout. The team didn't take its first lead until more than a minute later.

But five minutes of close competition was just about all the Eagles had in them.

The No. 6 Terps never looked back after securing the lead, dismantling American in a 76-42 rout. It's the Terps' ninth victory this season and fifth by more than 30 points.

"Credit American: They came out really aggressively, I thought they were the more physical team in the first half and I thought they were able to take us out of our rhythm," coach Brenda Frese said. "But when we were able to get up-tempo, we were able to get more looks inside."

Thomas scored eight of the team's first 12 points, pacing the Terps (9-0) as they continued to grow their lead. After falling behind the Eagles (5-4) by three to begin the game, the Terps closed the half on a 38-13 run, outscoring them by 12 in the paint during that stretch.

"I would say I [felt a little bit responsible]," said Thomas, who led all players with 17 points. "Once somebody gets going, the rest of us get going, and that's kind of our mentality."

The second half continued without incident until just after the 16-minute mark, when forward Whitney Bays had to be helped off the court after suffering an apparent left knee injury. The redshirt freshman, who missed all of last season with an ACL injury, spent much of the remaining time in the locker room.

"She knocked her knee, and having injured an ACL off that knee, we just wanted to be smart with it," Frese said. "She's fine; we just wanted to be conservative."

But even with Bays missing most of the second half and Tianna Hawkins struggling with foul trouble — she had four fouls with just six points and four rebounds in 16 minutes — the Terps had no trouble quelling any American comeback attempts.

Even as Frese emptied her bench late in the contest, the Terps cruised to a 34-point victory, holding the Eagles to less than 30 percent shooting from the field in the process.

"With the way American shoots the ball, we wanted to disrupt them out of their rhythm and do a good job defensively, and to be able to hold them to 9 percent from the 3-point line was an extremely positive thing," Frese said. "I knew they were going to scrap for 40 minutes, so we were prepared."

With a slow start in the game's first five minutes, it didn't seem as if the Terps were necessarily ready for all 40 minutes the way Frese expected. But in the final 35, the team made it clear there would be no letdown following its most tightly contested victory of the year.

Said Frese: "I just thought it was a really good, solid win for us."

vitale@umdbk.com